


The Tide Flows (But It's Still The Same Water)

by NoirAngel011



Series: Snapshots Of The March Girls; From 1861 To 1865 [6]
Category: Little Women Series - Louisa May Alcott
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-18 16:42:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21780571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoirAngel011/pseuds/NoirAngel011
Summary: Laurie feels completely obliterated when Jo rejects him. Then he meets Professor Bhear, and it doesn’t help the situation in the slightest. But maybe they can have a happy ending after all.One-sided Laurie/Jo, because it’s always one-sided. Based on the 2017 miniseries.
Relationships: Friedrich Bhaer/Josephine March, Theodore Laurence & Josephine March
Series: Snapshots Of The March Girls; From 1861 To 1865 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1566445
Kudos: 14





	The Tide Flows (But It's Still The Same Water)

Laurie was desolated, destroyed, demolished, and even adjectives that didn’t start with ‘d’ when Jo rejected him, like crushed or shattered. When she left, it hurt more than he could ever imagine. His best friend, his soulmate, gone before his very eyes. That hurt worse than losing his mother.

He felt like he was dying, how they said that your life flashes right before your eyes when you die, that’s how he felt. He could see all of his memories with Jo, good and bad. They kept replaying over and over and over.

His only option was to smooth things over with her, or he might never be able to sleep easy again.

He walked up the steps to the garret. Jo was leaving to take Beth out to see the ocean the next day, as she had finally sold enough stories and saved up enough money.

She sat at her desk, pen in her hand, unmoving. A drop of ink spilled from the tip and she startled, grabbing for a handkerchief sitting off to the side of her desk to clean it up before it dried.

“Jo, we need to talk.” he started, still standing at the top of the stairs.

“We shall not need and shall not talk,” she said. New York was making her language seriously proper, different from before she had left. Laurie blamed that professor she always wrote home about.

“Please, Jo. You cannot stay mad forever,” he took a step toward her. She spun around in her chair to face him.

“Last time I thought about it, you were the person to invade my privacy and inquire about things that are not true.” she was mad, he could see the flare-up in her eyes that always appeared when she became worked up about something or another.

He walked over to her and kneeled down in front of her. She glared at him, but didn’t speak.

“Jo, give me a minute, and listen. I’m sorry for the things I said. I’m sorry for invading your privacy and telling you who you can and cannot be friends with. Really, honestly and truly I am sorry. If you killed yourself, I would too, because I can’t stand you being mad at me. I know that you do not and will not ever love me, and that’s okay. Because no matter what way you do or don’t love me, I’ll always love you and always be here for you. I can promise you that much.”

Jo just stared at him.

She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, thinking. 

“Thank you, for expressing your feelings. I know what I feel and what you feel are different, and this conversation has helped me understand. This will not fix what had broken between us, but it’s a small mend in the larger crack. Now if you will excuse me, my publishers want a new story.” 

And she turned back to her work.

Laurie sighed inaudibly, standing up and walking back down the stairs of the garret.

Maybe, hopefully, with a dash of luck, they could fix what had broken between them, just like Jo said.

They never talked about what had happened in the flower field after, they hadn’t really talked at all. Jo had cried on his shoulder when Beth died, and smiled when he brought Amy home, but they hadn’t really talked about it. 

They had a small conversation, where he asked if they could go back to normal, like they were before. Jo had shook her head no.

“Not quite. We were children before, and we aren’t any longer,”

She had a point. One could not go back to that state of childhood innocence after losing so much. 

But they slowly got better. 

Jo was adamant about never getting married. Laurie kept thinking back to Meg’s wedding.

“Beth will dance at your wedding too.”

Those words echoed in his head. Maybe Jo remembered them as well.

Maybe she didn’t want to get married and have to look over and remember that Beth was gone. So she stayed put, refusing to marry. He hoped that someday she would find the right guy to convince her.

He hadn’t known she had found it until one rainy day in December. When she walked into the house with a man at her side. She was soaking wet from the downpour, and he was closing an umbrella.

It was their first christmas without Beth, and that alone hurt, but to see Jo, with that professor, hurt terribly.

He hadn’t even needed to think about it to know that this was the professor Jo always talked about. He had just known. He felt sad, but retreated back into the living room where everyone else was.

He was introduced to the family, Friedrich Bhaer. When he talked, he had a thick accent that annoyed Laurie, but Amy was delighted by this german man.

Jo went upstairs to change, leaving them all to get to know him. He was clearly much older, and Laurie saw Mr. March whispering to Marmee out of the corner of his eye. 

He heard Jo descending the stairs, and watched as Amy left to go talk to her.

“I’ve forgotten how to do it the pretty way.”

“You don't have to, Jo. You look beautiful.” she paused.

“Everybody really likes him.”

From where Laurie was sitting, he could only see the back of Amy’s head, but he knew she was smiling. It honestly felt nice to see Jo and Amy getting along once again.

Amy led Jo into the living room, and so the night began. Full of laughter and good times and everyone being happy together.

A week later, Laurie had to talk to Jo. Bhaer had proposed to her last night, and Jo hadn’t stopped smiling since.

“You are happy today,” He said, sitting down next to her on the couch in the garret.

“I never thought that I could have such a relationship as which I have with Professor Bhaer. It is lovely. It’s more fulfilling than an ever castle in the air.” she smiled at him, her face glowing. He hadn’t seen her so happy since before Beth died.

“Don’t let it go to your head,” he joked, ruffling her hair, which was loose and down.

“We need to talk, Teddy. I know there’s something wrong between us, and I want to fix it,” she said once their laughter ceased.

“That’s what I wanted to talk about as well.” he moved his hand down so it was resting on her shoulder. She leaned into him. He might be married and she might be engaged, but she never wanted to lose his comforting touches and gentle words.

“I should not have acted so poorly as I did. I was angry and caught up in the moment and I’m very, really truly sorry.” Jo looked up at him, her blue eyes filled with something he couldn’t recognize.

“Were you mad at me?” Jo lost her temper and got angry a lot, but she had only ever been truly mad at him a handful of times.

“In a way, yes. I was mad that I couldn’t find out how to control my own feelings. And I think arguing with you triggered that.” she looked down at the ground, avoiding Laurie’s eyes. She felt bad for shutting him out and being rude, but now she was trying to fix it, and she had no idea how.

“Well, I am deeply sorry that I did things to anger you. I know I disrespected your boundaries, and that hurt you.” He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her gently. 

Her eyes filled with tears, but she blinked them away. He brushed the hair out of her face.

“Can we just start over? I don’t want to be like this anymore. I want to be happy when I’m around you,” she rolled over and hugged him, burying her head into the crook of his neck.

“We can start over if it makes you happy.” He rubbed a hand up and down her back, the other one playing with her.

“It would. It most certainly would.”

“Then it’s settled. We’ll go back to how it was before. Just you and me, always and forever, Jo.”

“Me and you forever and always.” she echoed. She had a smile on her face, and he did too.

And with all the chaos that lived in Jo’s life, Laurie was that one constant that would keep her smiling for an eternity.


End file.
